Yakuza Spin-Off Like a Dragon Gaiden Was Originally Planned as DLC
Yakuza spin-off Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name was originally planned as a downloadable expansion and only took around six months to develop.
Speaking to Automaton, Like a Dragon Gaiden writer Masayoshi Yokoyama revealed the idea emerged as just an interlude in full sequel Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (Like a Dragon/Yakuza 8) before spiralling into its own game.
"There isn’t a huge difference between Like a Dragon Gaiden and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth," Yokoyama said. "By this I mean that, in a sense, Like a Dragon Gaiden was derived from Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth.
"We could have just told of Kiryu’s past through a 30-minute interlude as part of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, but we decided it would be a lot more interesting as a game of its own, which is how the project came to be. Though this meant having a whole extra game to make, it still uses the same engine, so we thought, 'It’s not like we have to make it from scratch,' and decided to go with it. In the end, it took us about half a year to make it."
Like a Dragon Gaiden will reveal what former series protagonist Kiryu Kazuma has been up to since the series switched away from him in Yakuza: Like a Dragon (Yakuza 7). Kiryu returns as a dual protagonist in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (Yakuza 8), so Gaiden will serve as a side story taking place during but away from the events of Yakuza: Like a Dragon. If that's not confusing enough, you can read about why developer RGG Studio renamed the series from Yakuza to Like a Dragon alongside its even more complicated naming conventions for Infinite Wealth.
Yokoyama continued: "I’m the one who first went: 'Let’s make it.' I said: 'If you’re going to make an episode about Kiryu’s past, it’s going
Read more on ign.com
